Have you ever been in a situation where only a split second before something bad happens you realize the error of your ways? I have, twice. Both times I blame it on a temporary lapse in common sense and good judgment. Both times, the device of my misfortune was also the the blessing.

As sad enough as it is to admit, this is one of two of my own personal Darwin moments.

I was a new mother and my husband and I were moving from our home in Fl for the greener pastures of NC. Because of the way our house was set up we had two choices: Park the moving truck 30 feet away and haul everything one by one out the side door, or remove the wrought iron porch railing and back the truck's ramp straight onto our concrete porch with sliding doors. As you can imagine, we went with the latter. And like so many other sheep of society, I did what I was told without actually thinking about what I was doing.

My husband told me he would slowly back the truck up, while I stood holding the ramp and lifting it up to set onto the porch. In my grievous error I grabbed the end of the ramp by the hand holds standing directly behind it. Mind you the ramp is tapered off at the end to a sharp, triangular point for easy loading. Everything was going fine until he stopped and the trucks back wheel rolled down a dip in the yard, thus pinning my leg between the sharp razor end of the ramp, and the solid concrete porch. Of course I immediately started screaming, trying to formulate coherency to tell him to pull forward. He did and we rushed to the hospital.

Diagnosis: About the equivalent of jamming my knee, which was the point of impact, in a car door. The ramp that could have so easily severed my leg was also my saving grace. The 'idiot proofing' manufacturer made the rounded handles on the end extend about 5 inches past the ramp. I was on crutches for three days with swelling and bruising and to add insult to injury, it happened to my left leg which I had to excruciatingly use to shift my gears driving across three states.

Submitted on 12/07/2010

Submitted by: Mandie Reid
Reference: N/A

Copyright © 2010 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
So why didn't you just back up the truck to the appropriate spot and THEN pull out the ramp & set it in place? Glad to hear you survived with your leg intact. Thanks for sharing, Mandie!

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Oh, owwwwwww... Glad to hear you're okay! Thanks, Mandie!

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